Pope Francis: Stealing Vatican Documents is a Crime

Curial reforms are going ahead

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VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has called the recent theft and leaking of confidential Vatican documents “a crime” and a “deplorable act that does not help.”

The Pope’s remarks came at the end of his Angelus address on Sunday in St. Peter’s Square.

They also come just days after the Holy See’s Secretariat for the Economy issued a statement saying that two recently released books, each containing leaked Vatican financial information, make “false and misleading claims” concerning both “management of expenditure” and “expenditure incurred” by the Secretariat’s Prefect, Cardinal George Pell.

The Pope was firm to add that this “sad event” will in no way deter him from pressing ahead with his planned reforms of the Roman Curia, and he asked the faithful to support this work through their prayer.

Here below is an English translation of the Pope’s comments:

Dear brothers and sisters,

I know that many of you have been troubled by the news circulating in recent days concerning the confidential documents of the Holy See that were stolen and published.

This is why I would first like to tell you that stealing those documents is a crime. It is a deplorable act that does not help. I personally had asked for the study, and I and my advisors were already well acquainted with those documents and steps were taken that have started to bear fruit, some of them even visible.

Therefore, I wish to reassure you that this sad event certainly does not deter me from the work of reform we are carrying out with my advisors and with the support of all of you. Yes, with the support of the whole Church because the Church renews itself through prayer and the daily holiness of each baptized person.

I therefore thank you and ask you to continue to pray for the Pope and the Church, without becoming troubled but carrying on with faith and hope.

Diane Montagnais Rome correspondent for Aleteia’s English edition.